AMERICA/BOLIVIA - Church in Bolivia concerned about new Education Bill : “a totalitarian vision of education the opposite to a democratic vision”

Cochabamba (Agenzia Fides) - Archbishop Tito Solari of Cochabamba, in a message “The Shepherd’s Voice”, expressed concern for a new Education Bill presented to Parliament (see Fides 17/7/2006; 21/7/2006). "we are concerned - he says - because this project contains a vision of totalitarian education. With this project the state takes complete control education”.
"This proposal of education - Archbishop Solari continued - is the opposite to a democratic vision where education is a public good, a social heritage involving parents, community, society and state” and he said “no organisation not even the state can manipulate education”. The proposed Bill denies parents’ right and responsibility to educate their children and to choose the type of education. The Archbishop said this right of parents, the first and principal educators of their children, cannot be renounced.
Archbishop Solari calls on parents to intervene. He asks legislators to avoid “being carried away by ideologies” and to “protect the universally recognised human rights”. He calls on Catholics “to participate and to watch attentively how the Bill is examined in parliament”. (RG) (Agenzia Fides 12/10/2006; righe 17, parole 219)